Are you growing your business? Automating areas of your business is one of the smartest steps you can take. It’s similar to paying your bills. You can set your bills such as your electric, rent, mortgage, and internet on auto-pay and not worry about late payments, or you can physically go to each location and pay your bills in person. Setting your bills on auto-pay will save you several hours each month and enable you to spend more time on other important tasks.

The same is true for your business. You can automate much of your work, or you can keep doing things the old way. For example, you can market yourself in the local newspaper and hang up flyers, or you can focus on getting a high ranking with Google and placing advertisements on classifieds websites. Pursuing both actions will be beneficial, but not marketing online is a big mistake.

Much of your online marketing can be automated. Godaddy has all kinds of automation features when it comes to your Google rankings with their search engine visibility plans. You can also hire a couple of people to handle your classifieds ads online. Taking these steps will enable you to work on your business rather than in the business. Successful entrepreneurs oversee everything; they make sure every facet of their business is incredible rather than attempting to be an expert at everything themselves. They hire experts and automate everything they can.

I spent so much time, energy, and passion putting this book together. This book is dedicated to anyone who has any interest in business.

Make Money with a Microbusiness will help you with your microbusinesses! With this book, you will learn how to start a successful microbusiness step by step, and it explains why microbusinesses will continue to explode in popularity.

Microbusinesses are a great way to make money and make a difference. With advancements in technology, the power and potential of microbusinesses will only increase! Currently, we have physical books available along with the Kindle version. Make Money with a Microbusiness will also be available in the iBook store soon!

Click here to invest in a physical copy of the book through CreateSpace! (CreateSpace is owned by Amazon.)

Click here to invest in the Kindle version through Amazon!

You can also get one directly through Amazon here! At least $1 from every single book sale will go to charity: water. Visit charitywater.org to learn more!

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Most marketers need to retrain their brains when it comes to their advertisements. Virgin Mobile is an exception. I NEVER watch the advertisements before watching a YouTube video. This commercial has been the ONLY exception for me. What a brilliant ad….

I hardly write about music, yet music is such an important part of my life. I’ve been playing drums for 11 years and have even played in a few locally successful bands along the way.

I’ve become more passionate about business and just finished my first book about business. Music is discussed throughout the book, but I didn’t give musicians the credit they deserve…I’ll have to take note of that for the final edit of the book.

Do you notice how musicians and artists are some of the first people to adopt new technology? For the past month, I’ve been constantly listening to Deadmau5, Skrillex, and other electronic musicians. The sounds they all produce are unbelievable. It’s only going to get more interesting as technology evolves….

Musicians are creative, and creativity is what invents new paths. When you’re looking for inspiration for your business or personal life, listen to new music.

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Schools must evolve with technology and society. This doesn’t mean they all need to buy the most expensive equipment. Being aware of these changes is a great start. Last week, code.org released a video on YouTube highlighting the fact that most schools aren’t teaching children how to code.

Schools didn’t need to quickly change 50 years ago; technology wasn’t evolving as quickly. Today, however, schools must start changing their curricula faster than ever. This will help enable more children of future generations to invent and make positive impacts on the world. It will also help them learn how to take preventative measures against the downsides of technology. Defending ourselves from cyber attacks has become a practical skill.

“Learn what you need to learn…every single day.”

I recently read two remarkable free eBooks by Seth Godin that discuss other negative consequences of schools not changing with technology and society. They’re called Brainwashedand Stop Stealing Dreams; I highly recommend them. If you’re a teacher, these are must reads. They’re also helpful to those of you with or without children that want to help create a positive future for upcoming generations.

Many jobs require a certificate, license, or college degree. Doctors, lawyers, nurses, mechanics, and many other professions require you to get some kind of formal education.

Conversely, there are many business opportunities that require no formal education. These opportunities include developing applications for computers, tablets and smart phones; designing a new video game that can be played online and found in the app store; creating a successful website or blog; becoming a business consultant; becoming a tutor and publisher for a variety of subjects; starting a lawn care company; starting a construction company; and the list goes on!

If you pursue the opportunities that don’t require a formal education, you will usually need to develop excellent learning habits. A college education is no longer enough for these opportunities; the most successful people today are lifelong learners. Be sure to continuously read a variety of books and learn new skills to sharpen your knowledge! Having a private tutor can help speed up this process. : )

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If there was no such thing as money, you could still expect something in return for your products and services. Providing excellent products and services would still give you freedom if we simply practiced trade. The more people you help, the more freedom you’ll have.

With advances in technology, it’s easier than ever to help more people. Make that your focus. Money isn’t everything. What you receive for what you give is definitely a motivator, but it’s not everything. Our lives have so much more meaning and happiness when we connect our wants and needs with ongoing actions that truly help other people.

You may get discouraged with your new business ventures or projects, but don’t forget to focus on the big picture. Remember that many of the most successful people in the world had very small beginnings and had to work hard for many years before they achieved a high level of success. If you are pursuing a project you are truly passionate about, keep going! You don’t have to make it a full-time job or even a part-time job right away. It can be something you work on for a few hours every single week for years until you make it a part-time or full-time job.

Notice all of the businesses, celebrities, individuals, athletes, blogs, websites, and YouTube videos that have gone viral and gained so much popularity. Chances are, they all have a few things in common; learn how they achieved success and take action from their positive advice and examples. Also learn about their humble beginnings. Again, so many of the most popular products, services, and people had a very small start. Here are a few examples:

Coca Cola had a very humble beginning. In the first year, only 9 glasses of Coca Cola were sold a day! Source

“Early in 1999, while still graduate students, founders of GoogleSergey Brin and Larry Page decided that the search engine they had developed was taking up too much of their time from academic pursuits. They went to Excite CEO George Bell and offered to sell it to him for $1 million. He rejected the offer.” (Financing and Initial Public Offering)Source

“Oprah Winfrey turned a life of hardship into inspiration for a multi-billion-dollar empire.” Source

Luckily, all of these people and businesses decided to move forward!

If you’re like me, you’ll be happy as long as you’re close with family and friends.

Be sure to set your own unique goals for your personal life and business.

Earning enough to provide the basics for your family is a great goal in my book, but I also believe that there is nothing wrong with having ambitious goals as long as those achievements don’t take you away from your marriage and children. Regardless, goals are something that are different for everybody. The key is to know your goals; you need to have a target.

If you do have ambitious goals, take the advice of Gary Vaynerchuk – “You have to think about building your brand in terms of a marathon, not a sprint.” That’s right, patience is the key. Give your project a chance if it’s something you’re truly passionate about.

If something clearly isn’t working for you or you don’t even like your line of work, then it may be time to move on to another endeavor if at all possible. A great book to read about quitting is called ‘The Dip‘ by Seth Godin.

Hang in there, and remember that many of the most successful people in the world experienced hardship at some point in their lives.

Humans have more access to information now than at any other point in time on this planet. Gathering information for important problems often starts with a simple Google search, which is obviously much faster than the old-school way of doing research. Don’t get me wrong, I find the library very helpful. I go there all of the time to research business books and browse new releases, but primary research is often done with Google.

Bill Clinton has been quoted as saying that he only sent a grand total of 2 emails while he was in office. He also added that there were only about 50 websites in 1993 and that cell phones were very uncommon. Today, as we all know, our cell phones have become an essential tool. Instant text messaging, emails, phone calls on the fly, immediate access to websites, seemingly infinite apps, GPS maps, cameras, video recorders, alarm clocks, and music players demonstrate the variety of features that have been added to cell phones within the last decade. Of course, we have come to rely on them for their convenience. What a major change since 1993 when it was rare to even see a cell phone! I’ve sent more emails from my cell phone today than Bill did from a PC when he was the president!

With all of this technology, we have never had as many opportunities to make an impact on our communities and on the world. Anybody with a smart phone or computer has unlimited opportunities to connect with other like-minded people and take action. Promoting yourself online is also becoming easier every day. Visit the top 100 free classified ad posting sites.

Also be sure to check out the niche advertising websites you can access in your local community. Do you have anything you can help people with? Using the many tools available to us, there’s no reason not to share your assistance. Many DIY innovators make a great living as very small, independent business owners doing just this. The numbers of microbusiness owners are bound to grow based on current trends in technology…

Most of us are well aware of search engine optimization (SEO). Every time you use Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any other web search engine to answer one of your questions, SEO is hard at work. “Web SEO is simply the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine‘s “natural” or un-paid (“organic“) search results.” Having great SEO for your products and services is crucial for sales; I believe it has become more practical than salespeople within the last decade.

When you need a product or service, do you search for potential solutions on Google

Great SEO is now more important than salespeople in many industries.

and compare prices, or do you wait for an annoying salesperson to call you? I personally always research using search engines, and most of the people I know do the same.

With excellent SEO, thousands and even millions of people will be able to see your products and services with an online search engine. The number of people you can reach with this approach each week is so much greater than the few hundred you can reach with 3-4 salespeople making phone calls. Here’s the catch: you only need 3-4 people who are experts at SEO to reach this incredible amount of individuals.

But hey, why not have some salespeople AND excellent SEO? The key is to give SEO more attention than sales calls and sales emails. Building a strong SEO team for your company is more important than a strong sales team in many industries.

Where do you go if you want to subcontract your SEO work? There are many people out there who charge way too much to help you with SEO; you should be very selective if you choose to hire someone to help you. Reading a variety of books about the topic will be a great way to get familiar with it if you aren’t already.

Search engine optimization is still young. In the year 2000, it wasn’t nearly as important as it is today. SEO is only going to become more important; staying informed about its changes is a must.